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Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
72
Sunnyside Shadows etc
The river seen from Sunnyside throughout most of its length in its relations to the groves, meadows, canons washes avalanches slopes shadows of the walls etc, is all clear as a map.
One of the first relations noticed is that the river keeps away from the groves & that its main bends coincide with the main shadows cast by the South wall. The shadows protected lingering remnants of the main trunk Yosemite glacier which formed moraines on which the forests & groves are growing as being the driest ground & the river of course is compelled to flow around this high ground.
Comparing the N. [North] & S. [South] walls of the valley they are seen to be mostly the same as to [in] structure of rocks but unlike in sculpture. The N. [North] wall is comparatively plain & massive in style. Its canons are on a grand scale & all open down the valley in the direction of the flow of the tributary glaciers that entered the main trunk. Only one exception in canon W. [West] of Upper Yo [Yosemite] Fall
The south side where the shadows dwell is deeply sculptured; & the greater & more constant the
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shadow belonging to any portion of the wall, the more deeply is that portion sculptured, & the side canons are mostly small & their courses variable in direction of trend. Some opening down the valley some up, some zigzag. Since only the residual glaciers were much concerned in making them with the exception of the Pohono Gl [Glacier].
This after sculpture is on the greatest scale between Cathedral & Sentinel Rocks. Glaciers of small size having lingered there furnishing soil for the forest now growing beneath them. Not being much rounded or crushed the moraine material of those small gls [glaciers] resemble avalanche detritus & is indeed covered by earthquake taluses in many places. Thus the large grove that fills this portion of the valley is accounted for
The next largest mass of timber in the valley is near the head growing upon moraine material deposited by a glacier that lingered in the Illilouette Canon & which was connected with another that lingered beneath the shadow of Glacier Point. The fine curve of the grove [sweeping] sweeps from the west side of the face of Glacier Point mountain into the valley nearly across to Royal Arches & around to the South Dome. This was the largest of the residual gls. [glaciers] 2 miles long.
Date Occurred
1872-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel32 Notebook01 Img039.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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